Oxford United manager Gary Waddock fears losing has become a habit after his
team's 2-0 defeat to Sky Bet League Two promotion rivals Fleetwood Town

Unhappy: New Oxford United manager Gary Waddock says losing has become a habit for his teamPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

By Jimmy Pierce, Kassam Stadium

11:00PM BST 06 Apr 2014

Oxford United’s season is unravelling at the most inopportune time. Having topped the table in December, they slipped out of the League Two play-off places for the first time with another insipid display against a Fleetwood Town side on a contrasting trajectory towards automatic promotion.

Last week disgruntled supporters confronted a group of players after the defeat at Dagenham & Redbridge and their sanguine welcome to Gary Waddock for the new manager’s first home game turned to boos by half-time.

Heightened by their sparkling pre-Christmas form, the Kassam is in an almost palpable state of disharmony. In the two months since Chris Wilder resigned in January as manager, caretaker Mickey Lewis secured one win. Waddock, since his appointment, has presided over three successive defeats but believes that it “might be a relief for the players” to no longer occupy a play-off berth.

“The lads have been looking over their shoulder wondering when or if we can stay in it,” he said. “Now we’re out of it, we have to knuckle down. It’s become a habit, losing and I don’t like it.”

Shortly after the half-hour, Antoni Sarcevic whipped in a corner which missed everyone but David Ball lurking at the back post. Another Sarcevic set-piece, his curling free-kick, sealed victory early in the second half.

The Lancashire club have a chequered history of liquidations and reformations but these are exciting times. They were on the verge of folding again in 2002 before gas entrepreneur Andy Pilley stepped in. He bought the club, subsequently invested £10 million and oversaw five promotions in eight years. Not even AFC Wimbledon climbed the pyramid as quickly.

“There is real belief among our squad that the club is going places,” said Ball, scorer of the opening goal. “I could have stayed in the Cham­pionship but I joined Fleetwood because the project impressed me.”

Fleetwood travel to third-placed Chesterfield on the final day having now closed the gap on them to three points. Graham Alexander, the manager, said: “We’re at the business end. We’ve got five games to go and we want to get into that top three. This is a small step towards that.”